Saks Friends & Family Sale -10% off Beauty & Fragrance

Saks is kicking off their Friends & Family sale tomorrow, April 26th, which will go until May 1st for online. Enjoy 20% off (15% off jewelry, 10% off beauty & fragrance) with code FRIEND2 at checkout. It applies in-store April 28th through May 1st.

NYC Union Square Eyeshadow Palette

NYC Union Square IndividualEyes Custom Compact ($4.99 for 0.33 oz.) is an excellent choice for an affordable, neutral-themed palette. Though it’s marketed as for “brown eyes,” I think it would work well with a variety of eye colors and skin tones. It contains four eyeshadows, an illuminator, and eyeshadow base.

The eyeshadow base worked a treat when I wore it under these eyeshadows — no creasing or fading for the twelve hours I tested the product out for. The texture was creamy without being slippery and the product more opaque than not, so it worked well to create a solid base for the eyeshadows. I didn’t find the illuminator as useful, as it is a little glittery and almost tacky, so it was a miss for me. Both of the products are cream-based, so you may find that excess powder from the eyeshadows travels over as a result of the palette’s design.

All four eyeshadows were really pigmented and soft to the touch. They were a touch stiff to blend, but I was still able to blend them out for the most part–not perfect but good. The shades included are: an eggplant purple with red undertones and soft silver sparkle, bronzy brown with a golden bronze shimmer-sheen, medium-dark neutral brown with a matte finish, and warmed ivory beige with a satin sheen. I did a look with this palette here.

Recap:

This is a product that lives up to its claims–it wears all day without budging, creasing, or fading–and blends as well on its own as it does with other eyeshadows (or on top of an eyeshadow base). Giorgio Armani describes the Eyes to Kill Intense formula as neither powder nor cream but a hybrid that creates a “smooth, lasting color film” that can be applied wet or dry. Giorgio Armani explains, “Each shade is intensified with a second pigment for a multi-dimensional effect. In just one swoop, create a wet, shimmering smokey eye … Base color covers eyelid, and second pigment adds drama to the contour.”

The texture of these feels almost like a cream eyeshadow, but it has the thinness of a powder eyeshadow while retaining some of the blendability of the hybrid cream-powder eyeshadow. It also works well with other eyeshadow (see this look using #6). It’s almost like a really dense loose powder that’s been pressed down, because if you dig at it, it loosens.

Though pricey, each shade comes with 0.14 oz. worth of product, which is a hefty amount (normal eyeshadow averages around 0.05 oz., no matter the price). The only aspect I didn’t love was the little black stopper inside the jar (once you unscrew the black lid), because my longer fingers felt awkward grabbing it (so I just unscrew it upside down so it falls into the cap).